A fond farewell

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sunday

Nov 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2009 at 6:00 AM

Tim Tebow’s eye black is waterproof.

His perfect season is starting to look shatterproof.

Tebow accounted for five touchdowns in his home finale, a triumphant farewell that included tears on the field and in the stands, and top-ranked Florida thumped rival Florida State 37-10 yesterday in Gainesville, Fla., for its sixth consecutive victory in the series.

“I don’t want to say goodbye,” Coach Urban Meyer said. “The good thing is we’re not done. The negative is we’re done in this great stadium.”

The Gators stayed unbeaten heading into next week’s Southeastern Conference showdown against No. 2 Alabama, extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 22 games and improved to 12-0 for just the second time in history.

Tebow might have even secured a third consecutive trip to New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation. He completed 17 of 21 passes for 221 yards and ran 15 times for 90 yards. He gets one more chance to impress on the big stage next week in Atlanta against the Crimson Tide with a trip to the national championship game on the line.

The Seminoles (6-6) lost for the second time in six games, and longtime Coach Bobby Bowden’s likely finale at Florida Field showed exactly why some FSU faithful are urging him to retire: Florida outplayed its in-state rival at every position.

Bowden said he has some “soul-searching” to do before making a decision about his future at Florida State.

“I want to coach next year, but let me say I want to go home and do some soul-searching,” said Bowden, who has 388 career victories, second most in major college football. “I’ve got to run this thing through my mind a few times.”

Tebow, linebacker Brandon Spikes and their fellow seniors have more wins (47) than any other class in SEC history. They also improved to 12-1 against their four traditional rivals — Tennessee (4-0), Georgia (3-1), Florida State (4-0) and Miami (1-0).

The revelry started with Tebow making his final walk into The Swamp amid 90,000-plus fans screaming his name. Tebow and Meyer embraced at the 30-yard line as tears flowed down Tebow’s cheeks.

(4) TCU 51, New Mexico 10: In Fort Worth, Texas, Andy Dalton matched a career high with four touchdown passes, two to Antoine Hicks in a 12-second span, as TCU wrapped up its first undefeated regular season in 71 years.

That should finally make the Horned Frogs (12-0, 8-0 Mountain West) a BCS buster, though they will have to wait another week to find out for sure whether they will get to go to one of the big-money games. Representatives from the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls attended the game.

Georgia 30, (7) Georgia Tech 24: In Atlanta, Georgia took a page out of Georgia Tech’s playbook, rushing for 339 yards to put a real damper on the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.

Washaun Ealey rushed for 183 yards, while Caleb King rambled for 166 yards and two touchdowns as the Bulldogs (7-5) reclaimed state bragging rights in a disappointing year and handed the Yellow Jackets (10-2) a huge setback in what has been their best season in nearly two decades.

Georgia Tech’s loss completed a dismal day for the two teams that will meet Saturday in Tampa, Fla., for the ACC title. Earlier, Clemson was blown out by South Carolina 34-17.

(14) Virginia Tech 42, Virginia 13: In Charlottesville, Va., Ryan Williams ran for 182 yards and four touchdowns and Virginia Tech beat Virginia in what was likely Al Groh’s last game as Cavaliers coach.

The Hokies (9-3, 6-2 ACC) won their sixth straight in the series and for the 10th time 11 meetings with the Cavaliers (3-9, 2-6). It was their eighth victory in nine games against Groh and ended Virginia’s worst season since it finished 2-9 in 1982.

Spiller opened the game with an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, an NCAA record-setting seventh of his career. But the Gamecocks (7-5) bottled up Spiller and Clemson’s high-scoring offense after that to end a six-game win streak for the Tigers (8-4).

(17) LSU 33, Arkansas 30: In Baton Rouge, La., Josh Jasper hit a 41-yard field goal with 4 seconds to go to force overtime then made a 36-yarder in overtime to lift LSU (9-3, 5-3 SEC).

Alex Tejada missed a 36-yard field goal that could have forced a second OT, and Arkansas (7-5, 3-5) just missed a remarkable comeback bid, highlighted by Ryan Mallet’s fourth-down touchdown pass to Joe Adams with 1:18 left, which gave the Razorbacks a 30-27 lead.

(18) BYU 26, (22) Utah 23 (OT): In Provo, Utah, Max Hall threw a 25-yard touchdown pass in overtime to Andrew George for the Cougars’ third victory in four years in the in-state rivalry.

Hall found George open for a quick dump-off over the middle and George had nobody between him and the goal line, hugging the ball with both hands as he went for the winning score for the Cougars (10-2, 7-1 Mountain West).

(19) Miami 31, South Florida 10: In Tampa, Fla., Javarris James rushed for two touchdowns, Jacory Harris threw for two more and Miami took a big early lead.

Dedrick Epps and Leonard Hankerson caught touchdown passes for Miami (9-3), which ran out to a 21-3 halftime lead and capped its first nine-win regular season since 2005. A bowl victory would give Miami its first 10-win season since 2003.

North Carolina St. 28, (23) North Carolina 27: In Raleigh, N.C., Russell Wilson threw four touchdown passes and Alan-Michael Cash blocked a field goal with about five minutes left to help North Carolina State (5-7, 2-6 ACC) upset North Carolina (8-4, 4-4).

(25) Houston 73, Rice 14: In Houston, Case Keenum threw for 323 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another in the first half and Houston captured the Conference USA West division title.

Tyron Carrier returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a score and Houston tied a school record with 59 first-half points to get its place in Saturday’s title game at East Carolina.

Charles Sims added a pair of scores for Houston (10-2, 6-2) and Carrier scored on a 37-yard run in the second quarter.

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